The Two-Way

1:22 pm

Tue April 1, 2014

Senate Democrats Say Caterpillar Avoided $2.4 Billion In Taxes

Caterpillar Inc Vice President for Finance Services Julie Lagacy is flanked by former Senior International Tax Manager Rodney Perkins (left) and Chief Tax Officer Robin Beran (right) as they are sworn in to testify on Tuesday.

Jonathan ErnstReuters/Landov

At a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, senior officials of Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar Inc. defended the company against accusations that it had used an affiliate in Switzerland to avoided paying some $2.4 billion in taxes over a 12-year period.

"Americans pay the taxes they owe and not more. And, as an American company, we pay the taxes we owe, not more," Julie Lagacy, vice president of financial services at Caterpillar, told a Senate panel on Tuesday.

"Caterpillar takes very seriously its obligation to follow tax law and pay what it owes," she said.